According to foreign media reports, the global auto chip shortage that began at the beginning of last year will remain a major challenge for automakers this year.

In addition, the industrial chain news also showed that the global shortage of automotive chips is exacerbated by some factors, rising crude oil prices and rising battery materials prices have also brought variables to the development of global electric vehicles.

In the report, foreign media also mentioned that in the past few years, the global auto industry has been affected by the epidemic, chip shortage and other factors. Car sales in the US, a major global market, fell by nearly 15% in 2020, while global sales fell to 77.97 million units.

While global car sales picked up to 85 million last year, it is difficult to return to pre-pandemic levels due to continued chip shortages and other new factors.

According to the news from the automakers, the chip shortages that affected them last year are still affecting their production and sales this year.Earlier this week, Toyota announced on its website that nine of its 14 factories in Japan would be production in May, involving 10 production lines, due to chip shortages.

Anson Mei (onsemi), an international automotive chip manufacturer, sent a letter on April 20 that its global distribution centers were forced to close due to the epidemic in Shanghai, which will continue to affect production and shipments.

Supply chain industry said that the goods can not go, storage is difficult to take goods, especially PCB production, plus other domestic provinces and cities have also been closed control, the chain situation has increased, the shortage of goods may quickly emerge.

Anson beauty pointed out that as the domestic government strengthened the closure, especially in Shanghai, Anson beauty domestic global distribution centers were forced to close and affect the business, also did not receive any notice of lifting the closure.In addition to the closure of Shenzhen, Suzhou and Leshan, smaller cities have also begun to impose closures or strengthen restrictions on access to cities, particularly affecting external manufacturing locations.Anson will closely monitor the impact of supply disruptions of materials, equipment and services at home.

In addition to trying its best to deliver products quickly, it has also started moving to other Anson American subdivisions to ease capacity constraints, such as Singapore and Manila in the Philippines, relocating alternative warehouses and accelerating transportation, but is still unable to transport enough materials to meet all customers.

Supply chain companies point out that Anson Mei's situation may only be the tip of the iceberg in the domestic auto supply chain.Seal control seriously affects the smooth flow of transportation logistics, at present, the goods can not enter, even if there is storage is difficult to get the goods, not only vehicle chips, PCB are also stopped production, some car parts are also stuck in the middle of transportation.

In 2021, the automobile market is short because the chip capacity is not below the demand growth rate. At present, even if the materials are blocked, the supply situation is worse.Even if the Shanghai municipal government announces a white list of production available, a number of automakers and international OEM (Tier 1), including Tesla and Volkswagen (VW).

However, the supply chain operators reiterated that the key is still in the domestic transportation agents and Shanghai customs, otherwise these named whitelist companies will still be in the dilemma of cooking without rice.Many companies are even worried about the risk of the outbreak at the factory and are reluctant to start work.

With domestic closures starting in late March, the market is expected that the auto industry will be significantly hit in the second quarter.Of course, supply chain companies are more worried about whether even if automakers are currently full of orders, consumers' purchasing power or willingness to buy cars will be hit by containment, inflation and international wars.

'As the government strengthens closure measures, especially in Shanghai, the closing of our global distribution centers in China has affecting the business.The collection of micro network confirmed, the news is true.

Here are some translations of the notification letter:

The onsemi continues to monitor global COVID-19 and closely monitor the latest developments in the Asia-Pacific region.As the government strengthens the containment measures, especially in Shanghai, our Chinese global distribution centers are forced to close, thus affecting the business.

At present, there is no change in our situation, and we have not received any notice of the progress that may lift the closure.Our company prioritizes the safety of its employees in any case and does its best to mitigate the impact of closure on our customers.

In addition to the closures of Shenzhen, Suzhou and Leshan affecting our local operations, we also note that smaller cities have begun to implement closures or strengthen restrictions on access to cities, particularly affecting external manufacturing locations.We are also responding closely to the disruptions of our materials, equipment and service suppliers in China.

The relevant team will continue to focus on providing key equipment to our customers and do our best to deliver products in the quickest possible way.In addition to that, we have started moving to other onsemi subdivisions to ease capacity constraints and help reduce the impact on ——, such as our distribution centers in Singapore and Manila, Philippines.

Despite many efforts to address this force majeure event, including relocating to alternative warehouses and accelerating transportation (i. e. NFO-Next Flight Out expedited Air Service), we were unable to transport sufficient materials to meet the needs of all our customers.

We are working to consolidate plans to further extend the closure period.Things are changing day to day and we will monitor and adapt our approach as needed.

It is reported that it is one of the world's largest suppliers of analog IC, logic IC and discrete semiconductor components.

In the past month, due to the strict prevention and control of the epidemic, many important manufacturers have closed their factories and encountered transportation obstacles, which gradually began to affect the global supply chain.On April 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has sent a Shanghai front working group to take multiple measures to support the stable production of key enterprises in Shanghai.

April 15 news, today it is news that SAIC began to prepare for the resumption of work and production matters.SAIC responded to the Securities Times, "Regarding time, there are internal goals, but it will be adjusted according to the epidemic control situation and their own preparations."  "Now first cooperate with the epidemic prevention according to the requirements of the government, maintain and transform the equipment, and make careful preparations for production under the epidemic prevention conditions."

IT Home learned that Shanghai Automobile Group Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "SAIC") is the largest automobile listed automobile company in the domestic A-share market, including passenger car companies, SAIC Datong, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Nanjing Iveco, SAIC Iveco Hongyan, Shanghai Shenwo, etc.

The current epidemic situation in Shanghai is still not optimistic.The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission announced this morning (April 15) that 3,200 new confirmed local COVID-19 cases and 19,872 asymptomatic infections occurred from 0:00 on April 14,2022.

Before the full closure of Shanghai, SAIC had declared to enter the "white list" of enterprises to start work and resume production in advance.When the company and the independent area of the work and factory, the abnormal and infected personnel are cleared and meet the conditions for no new positive cases for 7 consecutive days, the resumption of work can start.After entering the factory, the staff will immediately accept the 3-day silent period management (managed separately from the original resident personnel). During this period, the nucleic acid or antigen test is negative daily before returning to work.

SAIC Motor is said to have issued a notice on issuing the epidemic prevention and control guidelines of Shanghai Automobile Group Corporation for resuming work and production today.According to the notice, enterprises should actively carry out stress tests in accordance with the guidelines for the resumption of work and production.Once the stress test goes well, the enterprise will arrange the production of the whole vehicle and parts as soon as possible.

In addition, the notice also mentioned that SAIC manufacturers will prepare for the resumption of work and production, the results will be feedback before April 17 (Sunday), and the production enterprises will start the resumption of work and production on April 18 (Monday).

All production enterprises shall carry out stress tests in five aspects: personnel guarantee, supply chain guarantee, logistics guarantee, closed production management and epidemic prevention measures, and timely report the results and problems of stress tests.Arrange the production of vehicles and parts as soon as possible for the enterprises with smooth stress test.

At the supply chain level, SAIC will cooperate with its partners to fully promote the gradual resumption of work and production.In the document, SAIC will ask suppliers in advance to resume work, and timely determine the resumption capacity of supporting suppliers at all levels.

Congratulate Flyking Technology Co., Ltd. to become a honest member of ERAIEl

The full name of ERAIEl is ectronics Reseller Association International Incorporated, which is a private information service organization dedicated to monitoring, investigating as well as reporting disputes and complaints in the resale market of electronic components.Since 1995, the organization has been working on monitoring, investigating and reporting the problems existed in the supply chain of the electronics industry. Meanwhile, we have provided the critical and authoritative report, investigation and information for the electronic component industry.    

  In October 2018, Flyking Technology Co., Ltd. has became an honest member of ERAI, which means that the industry fully recognizes the integrity and quality of our services. As ERAI members, we not only have the ability to access the comprehensive list of well-known and the most risky types of electronic components in the industry for helping you to reduce the risk of purchasing existing components or shutting down components. While we are also committed to abide by ERAI membership principles, and adhere to the customer-first business idea to aviod customers suffering from quality risks.  

  Welcome friends from all industries to visit, guide and cooperate with Flyking Technology Co.,Ltd. We will remain committed to the cultural concept of "customer-first, service-first, dedication and specialization" and make unremitting efforts to provide customers higher quality and efficient service!

Work Together to Create Win-Win Result Celebrate the Successful Holding of the 2019 Flyking Technology Co., Ltd New Year Conference

With the beautiful shadow of time, the unforgettable 2018 has already left while the hopeful 2019 is coming to us. New year wil nurture new goals and hopes, new passion and dreams! On January 12, the Flyking Technology Co., Ltd. gathered all staff from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xiamen and Dongguan Branches together to Shenzhen Headquarters for the New Year's Conference themed by "Work Together to Create Win-Win Result" to express best wishes for the New Year!

At the beginning of the evening, the energetic colleagues turned into handsome boys and hot girls as they enter into the gallery. Everyone was Flyking's shining star. A colleague joked that we are absolutely capable of starting a new film company called Flyking Film Co., Ltd.. Come on, show you the pretty photos.

After a warm and fun New Year's greetings and a dazzling countdown,the long-awaited evening gala has officially begun.~

Accompanied by the exciting atmosphere of the music, our host stepped forward with dignified and generous, shining on the stage; the strong and passionate opening remarks suddenly grasped the hearts of all the participants, "Every Flyking staff will meet the brand-new 2019 with full hope and high morale. We will bravely forge ahead to become the industry benchmarking! “

During the toasting, we witnessed two handsome Bosses stepping onto the stage with a lovely New Year's greeting to all Flyking staff, followed by the enthusiastic and excellent performance of our colleagues! Joyful and passionate songs, lively and enthusiastic dances, and humorous sitcom have brought a wonderful evening gala full of happiness, laugh and passion to all employees.

The highlight of the evening party is the awarding to excellent employees. The development of the company can not be separated from the hard work of all staff. In 2018, excellent employees use outstanding performance to show their proficient abiltiy! To this end, the company has awarded several elite teams and outstanding employees, with honor and praise, I believe that in the future they will work harder and attain higher achievement

The lottery activity drew the most attention. This year's lottery was held in four rounds. The lottery level was divided into lucky prize, third prize, second prize, first prize and top prize. The overall winning rate was  55%. In the end, two cash red envelopes were set up to make the atmosphere of the party extremly warm.

I believe, I see; At the end of the evening, an exciting "I believe" expressed Flyking employees' strong confidence and good wishes in the bright future, pushing the atmosphere to a climax!!!

The brilliant lights is the color of the New Year; the passionate songs are the touching melody of the New Year! This is a joyful event, because it not only demonstrates the positive, harmonious and friendly youth of all the Flyking people, but also conveys the confidence and belief of all staff for working together to create a win-win achievement. We believe in ourselves, our team and our company. We believe that all employees will meet a better future in Flyking.

2019，We are comming!

SAN JOSE, Calif. — New chips coming from Qualcomm and a startup rival show that there’s plenty of work yet to do to make 5G networks live up to their hype.

For handsets, Qualcomm announced a more integrated 5G modem, an optimized RF front-end (RFFE) module for millimeter-wave bands, and a handful of supporting parts. Startup Movandi said that it is also working on a mmWave front end for handsets and announced a device to optimize 5G links across many use cases.

The chips come at a time when operators say that they are still in the early phase of a slow buildout of 5G networks. Work on mmWave signals is the most challenging aspect of the work.

“Just two to three years ago, there was so much skepticism about mmWave,” said Maryam Rofougaran, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Movandi. “From early trials, [operators] realized it can work, but they are not getting all they would like. There is room for improvement, especially to deploy 5G cheaply in a wide variety of places.”

The startup is mainly focused on infrastructure gear such as base stations and home receivers. That said, it has taped out a version of its RFFE for smartphones. “Realistically, the market [for 5G mmWave handsets] is not ready for meaningful volumes until 2020 or 2021,” said Rofougaran.

Qualcomm showed first-generation 5G smartphones and home gateways in December using its X50 modem and mmWave module. Today, it announced updates of both products.

The X55 is the company’s first baseband to support all key 5G features, including standalone (SA) and non-standalone operation as well as both FDD and TDD techniques. It also supports LTE and legacy cellular links. The X50 did not support SA or FDD or LTE.

Over 5G networks, the X55 delivers up to 7 Gbits/s down and 3 Gbits/s up. Over Category 22 LTE, it hits up to 2.5 Gbits/s. The 7-nm chip is sampling now and also supports 100-MHz envelope tracking and adaptive antenna tuning for 5G sub-6-GHz nets.

The QTM is thinner than 8 mm, and the X55 handles both 5G and LTE. (Image: Qualcomm)

The X55 is likely the second of three 5G chips that Qualcomm will release within 12 months in its efforts to lead the field. Analysts expect that Qualcomm will release early next year an integrated apps processor with a 5G modem.

The X50 targets premium smartphones — typically paired with a Snapdragon 855 that sports an integrated LTE modem — and snagged more than 30 design wins, Qualcomm claims. The first handsets using the X50 are expected to emerge at Mobile World Congress later this month. Handsets using the X55 will be available before the end of the year, Qualcomm said.

Given that supports LTE and 5G, the X55 is Qualcomm’s first 5G modem suitable for embedded devices. It can also be used in China where operators are expected to start services with SA, skipping the non-standalone mode that uses LTE as a control network.

In addition, Qualcomm announced the QTM525, a new version of its mmWave RFFE module. It is longer but thinner than the company’s first module and adds support for 26-GHz bands to the prior part’s support for 28 and 39 GHz.

The company is using the shift to 5G to expand its related business in RF in the face of rivals such as Broadcom, Qorvo, and Skyworks who are initially targeting sub-6-GHz 5G handsets. Qualcomm also announced the QET6100, a 100-MHz envelope tracker solution, the QAT3555 5G adaptive antenna tuner, and a family of integrated 5G/4G power amplifier and diversity modules.

Startup preps active repeater for 5G mmWave

Next week’s Mobile World Congress will probably be the first opportunity to gauge how much of a lead Qualcomm has in 5G. Several handsets using its X50 modem are expected to emerge along with whatever giants Huawei and Samsung may have planned using their own chips.

Intel announced recently that it plans a 5G chip for base stations called Snow Ridge. The chip, along with Intel’s delayed 5G baseband for handsets, the XMN 8165, will ship in the second half of the year. Mediatek is said to have also delayed release of its first 5G modem.

Huawei and Samsung are said to also be aggressively working on their own cellular RF front ends. However, they would be unlikely to announce such parts given that they would be focused on use only in their own handsets.

Qualcomm’s early move to mmWave potentially disrupts RF rivals such as Broadcom, Qorvo, and Skyworks even though it also challenged end users such as AT&T and Verizon. The mmWave bands also provide bandwidth to deliver the highest data rates — a traditional selling point — albeit at shorter distances.

“RFFE modules will completely change with mmWave,” said Rofougaran of Movandi.

The startup announced in mid-2017 its BeamX modules for base stations and other gear. The relatively large components have been tested by operators and OEMs but are not yet ready for deployment, and Movandi listed no customers for them in a press statement.

Meanwhile, “we have been engaged with a couple of critical mobile [handset] vendors and we have a good understanding of what’s needed and taped out a chip that addresses their size and power [requirements], and it’s better than what I’ve seen out there,” she said, in an oblique reference to the Qualcomm module.

Movandi’s next step is a kind of advanced active repeater that helps complete mmWave links. The BeamXR uses some new algorithms and more digital processing to overcome 5G mmWave challenges getting signals around buildings, through trees, or otherwise dealing with a lack of line of sight.

The BeamXR aims to fill in coverage or boost capacity for operators without adding the thousands of dollars to buy and deploy another small-cell base station. Its potential use includes residences with fixed-wireless access as well as indoor access for multiple handset users in cafes, malls, or offices.

The product is sampling in a prototype form now supporting 28 and 39 GHz. A next-generation version also will support 24- and 26-GHz bands. The startup hopes to have versions for commercial use in production before the end of the year.

NXP said it will work with Movandi, pairing its Layerscape SoCs and 5G modems with the startups mmwave front-end for applications such as smart homes, self-driving cars and future mobile cloud-based services.

STMicroelectronics, has combined its cutting-edge LED-control know-how with advanced power technologies in a new all-in-one LED control chip that enables future luminaires to save more energy and deliver better user experiences.All-in-one high-voltage LED-lighting control chip meets latest demands for efficient dimmingEnhanced accuracy and fast start-up ensure superior user experienceThe HVLED001B controller simplifies designing LED-lighting modules, maximizes energy efficiency at all dimming levels, and ensures smoother brightness control. Lighting innovator TCI of Italy, a lead customer, has already designed forthcoming products containing the new chip to increase energy savings, safety, and usability.

The HVLED001B is the second generation of ST’s LED driver family containing high-voltage startup and sensing circuitry that simplifies connection to the AC line.

Its advanced features support multi-platform reuse and compliance with the latest lighting regulations, and include:Very accurate line and load regulation over wide range to ensure constant output voltage or output currentConstant output voltage regulation, with no need of an optocoupler, to ensure voltage remains below recognized 60V safe limit, improving the application robustnessFrequency foldback for improved efficiency and regulation at light load with good efficiency at medium loadAccurate and smooth dimmingPower-conversion efficiency greater than 90%No-load power consumption less than 100mWPower factor greater than 0.9, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) below 10%Low EMI at light load and medium loadBuilt-in over-current, input over-voltage, brownout, and optocoupler failure protectionST’s smart Auto-Reload Timer (ART) ensures latch-free protection for enhanced safetyThe HVLED001B is in production now, housed in the familiar and compact SSOP10 package.

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel gave further details on its technique for embedding spin-transfer torque (STT)-MRAM into devices using its 22-nm FinFET process, pronouncing the technology ready for high-volume manufacturing. Embedded MRAM is considered a promising technology for applications such as internet of things (IoT) devices.

In a paper presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference here Tuesday, Intel said that it has used a “write-verify-write” scheme and a two-stage current sensing technique to create 7-Mb perpendicular STT-MRAM arrays in its 22FFL FinFET process. The company had provided early details of its success in developing the first FinFET-based MRAM devices last year at the International Electron Devices Meeting.

The embedded MRAM technology achieves 10-year retention at 200°C and endurance of more than 106 switching cycles, said Ligiong Wei, an Intel engineer who presented the paper Tuesday. The arrays have demonstrated write endurance of more than 1E06 cycles and read disturb error rate of more than 1E12 cycles, Wei said.

In addition to high endurance, the 22-nm embedded MRAM technology boasts robust yields, with a bit yield rate of greater than 99.9%, according to Wei. However, manufacturing the devices requires error-correction code bits, increasing the size and power budget of the design, Wei said.

MRAM — which is a non-volatile memory technology — is considered a promising long-term candidate to replace memory chip stalwarts DRAM and NAND flash, which face major scaling challenges as the industry moves to smaller nodes. But MRAM is also appealing as an embedded technology replacement for flash and embedded SRAM because of its fast read/write times, high endurance, and strong retention.

Globalfoundries has been offering embedded MRAM on its 22FDX 22-nm FD-SOI process since 2017, but it is not known if any customers are using the technology in commercial products currently shipping.

Analysts believe that Intel is already using its embedded MRAM technology in currently shipping products for foundry customers.

According to Intel’s ISSCC paper, each 0.0486-μm2 transistor to one magnetic tunnel junction (1T1MTJ) MRAM bit cell is 216 × 225 nm2, with two polysilicon word lines. The tunnel-magneto-resistance ratio of the MTJs is 180% at 25°C, with a target device-critical dimension between 60 nm and 80 nm.

Wei said that the eMRAM design is also tolerant of wide variations in supply voltage. The design achieves a 4-ns read sensing time at 0.9 V but is also capable of 8-ns read sensing time at 0.8 V, she said.

In a separate ISSCC paper presented Tuesday, Intel also described the development of resistive RAM (ReRAM) as a low-cost option for embedded non-volatile memory for SoCs used in IoT and automotive. The embedded ReRAM technology — also implemented in a 22-nm FinFET process — demonstrate what the company says is the smallest and highest-density ReRAM subarray and material innovations to allow low-voltage switching without impact to transistor reliability.

— Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.

SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung described a new neural-network accelerator for smartphones that matches blocks from rivals such as Huawei. Toshiba detailed one for self-driving cars that pulls ahead of competitors such as Intel’s Mobileye at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference here.

A 5.5-mm2 block in the latest 8-nm Exynos chip delivers 1.9 tera-operations/second (TOPS) using 8-bot precision running at up to 933 MHz, said Jinook Song, a Samsung AI engineer. That’s about the rating for the latest Kirin processor in Huawei phones and the latest commercial IP blocks.

However, the block hits performance of 6.937 TOPS when a neural net allows pruning of up to three-quarters of its weight. The chip delivers a range of 4.5 to 11.5 TOPS/W when consuming from 39 mW at 0.5 V to 1.553 W at 0.8 V.

Samsung detailed its 8-nm Exynos deep-learning block and its performance. Click to enlarge. (Source: ISSCC)Like mobile architectures from Cadence, Ceva, and Nvidia, the Samsung chip makes heavy use of pruning and quantization, running 8- and 16-bit operations to optimize for efficiency and network sparsity. “If you are not using sparsity and compression at this point, you are behind the curve,” said Mike Demler, an analyst from the Linley Group who was attending the session.

It’s not clear if the implementation is a full dataflow architecture, another trend implemented in the latest IP blocks, Demler said.

The Samsung design appears in the latest Exynos chip and is expected to be used in at least some new handsets that the South Korean giant is announcing as early as this week. To enhance parallelism, it uses two cores, each with two data-staging units sharing 512-KByte scratch pads.

Toshiba described an accelerator for advanced driver-assistance systems that delivers up to 20 TOPS and 2 TOPS/W, up from 1.9 TOPS and 564 GOPS/W with its 2015 chip.

Two new image-processing cores carried most of the work in the new version. Each block processes 8-MPixel images and up to 40 frames/second.

The 94.5-mm2 chip was made in a 16-nm node. It added to the 2015 design four DSPs, believed to be NeuPro cores from Ceva, as well as three new specialty accelerator blocks.

The image processors in Toshiba’s latest ADAS processor pack a punch. Click to enlarge. (Source: ISSCC)“I was surprised; there is a lot in this chip, and with four levels of processing, it looks pretty complete,” said analyst Demler.

For example, the Toshiba design packs eight Cortex-A53 cores and two Cortex-R4s, compared to four MIPS cores and no R4 equivalents on the latest Mobileye chips. In addition, the Mobileye chips run at 5 W in 7 nm, making them more power-hungry and expensive than the Toshiba SoC, he said.

However, it was not clear if the 2.7-W rating for the Toshiba design included the entire SoC. Also, Mobileye supports LiDAR and radar. It was not clear what sensors the Toshiba chip supports beyond cameras, and Nvidia’s Xavier design is likely more powerful, he added.

— Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times